Passing the Peak

November 10th, 2009

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Posted by ChrisG at 9:49 am

Has the IEA been playing down peak oil to keep the markets from going nutzoid? Ex-Agency people are reporting that it has, suggesting that we are closer to the end of cheap oil than governments have been willing to admit.

A report by the UK Energy Research Council (UKERC) last month said worldwide production of conventionally extracted oil could “peak” and go into terminal decline before 2020 – but that the government was not facing up to the risk. Steve Sorrell, chief author of the report, said forecasts suggesting oil production will not peak before 2030 were “at best optimistic and at worst implausible”.